Fetterman rejected a debate with Oz and now the Pa. Senate race is descending further into name-calling
PHILADELPHIA — An already acerbic Pennsylvania Senate race got even more combative this week after Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said he won’t attend a debate that he and Republican opponent Mehmet Oz were invited to next week.
The debate, at the KDKA TV station in Pittsburgh, was scheduled for next Tuesday. Fetterman’s campaign officially declined the invitation this Tuesday, unleashing a deluge of insults from Oz’s campaign, which has challenged him to five debates.
“We were just informed by... KDKA that the Fetterman campaign is declining to attend the KDKA debate,” Brittany Yanick, an Oz spokesperson, said in a statement late Tuesday. “John Fetterman is a liar, a liberal, and a coward.”
The Oz campaign earlier in the day released a list, dripping with sarcasm, of concessions they’d grant Fetterman regarding debates. “Doctor Oz promises not to intentionally hurt John’s feeling at any point,” the campaign said. “We will allow John to have all his notes in front of him along with an earpiece so he can have the answers given to him by his staff in real time. ... We will pay for any additional medical personnel he might need to have on standby.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
Yale psychiatrist loses attempt to get her job back after assertions about then-President Trump’s mental health
HARTFORD, Conn. — A Yale psychiatrist who was not reappointed after she called now former President Donald Trump “delusional” and responsible for spreading a “shared psychosis” among his followers has lost an attempt to win back her position.
U.S. District Judge Sarah A.L. Merriman dismissed a lawsuit against Yale University by Dr. Bandy Lee, whose assertions about the mental health of the former president made her a favorite in anti-Trump circles.
Lee argued in the suit that the university violated her speech rights and professional obligations by denying her reappointment because she exercised her “duty to warn” the public about what she said is the “contagion” of Trump’s mental instability.
When it denied Lee’s reappointment, the university said it had reservations about her judgment, professionalism and fitness to teach after she began making widely disseminated diagnoses of Trump and some in his inner circle without the benefit of having ever met or spoken with them. Such long-distance diagnoses conflict with guidance from the American Psychiatric Association, of which Lee is not a member.
—Hartford Courant
UCLA professors allegedly charged certain students extra fees. Now they want to hide investigation from public
The complaint came in 2018 from a whistleblower about UCLA's School of Dentistry. Three professors had allegedly solicited international postgraduate students for unauthorized fees on top of the already hefty tuition.
The design of the alleged profit-sharing scheme was bold: Certain orthodontics residents were required to pay extra fees and the professors received incentive and bonus compensation based on the payments.
Spots in UCLA's prestigious, highly selective orthodontics program are at a premium, with only a handful earmarked for international students. Annual tuition for those students approaches six figures.
After investigating the allegations, a law firm commissioned by UCLA issued a report that concluded the professors targeted Middle Eastern students believing their wealthy government sponsors "could — and would — pay for it."
—Los Angeles Times
Germany reaches deal with families of victims in 1972 Munich Olympics massacre
BERLIN — After decades of legal wrangling over compensation for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, the German government has reached an agreement with victims' families, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Wednesday in Berlin.
In a joint statement by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Herzog said: "We welcome the results of the discussions. This agreement cannot heal the wounds, but it includes an acceptance of responsibility on Germany’s part and its recognition of the terrible suffering of the victims, whom we shall commemorate next week, and of their loved ones."
The statement also said that Herzog had worked for months "with representatives of the bereaved families and the Olympic Committee of Israel, while also speaking regularly with his friend President Steinmeier" to reach the agreement.
Herzog thanked Steinmeier in the statement, calling him a "close friend of Israel," and also expressed his "appreciation for this important step by the German government, led by Chancellor Scholz."
—dpa
